Online simulation for flexible robotic manufacturing

From cutting shapes out of metal or wood to welding, screwing or lifting heavy objects, the application and versatility of robots in industry is vast. Their programs however are typically very static and only used in pre-defined, static settings, thus they cannot deal with changing production tasks. Whenever a special problem has to be solved several times with different parametrizations, transferring simulation results to real-world applications is desirable in order to reduce the time investment necessary for program adjustments. The current paper discusses the major challenges in including powerful simulations as a tool to improve robot programs at runtime. Further, an evaluation of the Virtual Robot Experimentation Platform (V-REP) with respect to its applicability to direct robot control via simulation is presented.